We stayed at New Norcia for the night last night and what an amazing place it is.  It is a 20,000 acre farm owned by the Benedictine Monks.  There are 11 monks and one Abbott in residence.  It was used as an orphanage for aboriginal children and then as an orphanage/boarding school for local farmers children.  There were four distinct 'school', boys and girls, black and white.  The buildings are just magnificent and they are now used as tourist accommodation and the convents are opened for tour groups to have a look at.  There is also a deep space education center there, go figure!!!!

One of the many walls separating boys from girls, black from white

Museum/Gallery/Info Centre

Monk's Chapel

Abbots residence

Boy's convent

Boy's chapel

Girl's Chapel

OMG!!!! The keys!!!!!!

Girl's convent

Cloisters

We spent a few days in Bunbury (sorry, no photos, camera was being cleaned) and it is a bit bigger than Busselton, but just a pretty.  Beautiful beaches, nice people and we even meet some fellow EMPIRE owners.  Oh, and lots of Queenslanders.  I am amazed at the number of them we are running into in this part of WA.

After a nice rest at Bunbury we are now in the hussle and bustle of Perth.  We were stuck for a few days sorting out a problem we had with one of the caravan batteries, but finally, sorted.  We were going to do a trip to Rottnest Island, but after having to wait around for the batteries, the weather turned windy, so we have given that a miss.  2m swells does not make for a pleasant trip to the island.  Oh well, one for the list next time around.  We spent a day in the city looking around, went to Kings Park (Amazing) and had fun hoping on and off the free city public transport.  It really is very well done and makes travelling in the city easy and fun.  And guess what - Another EMPIRE parked up at the Perth Caravan Park.  They are sssoooo common..........

We have one more capital city in Australia to go and then we have been to them all and will not be in a hurry to return to them.  Give me the country any day!!!!!!!!!!!!

Pinjarra free camp - river a tad full......
Oh, and I was standing on a long narrow suspension
bridge over a flooded river to get this shot - I am so brave.......

Shopping mall in Perth built to resemble an English Tudor village - pretty cool

more of the mall

Perth city from Kings Park

small part of Kings Park - very pretty place

Busselton is a lovely town.  We stayed just outside town on the waters edge.  Apparently a farmer donated his waterfront land to the local churches for use as caravan/camp sites, cheap, well run and the council can't touch them.  The 'parks' are small, only about 20 sites per group, but well looked after and much cheaper than the big 4 across the road!!!  The beach can only be accessed by the caravan park, so not crowded.  Lovely spot.

We did some maintenance to the van, then headed to Margaret River.  SSSSOOOO many wineries!!!  Unfortunately they now charge to do a tasting, so we by passed them and went to Augusta for the day and checked out a cave (also LOTS of them).  The cave was pretty amazing.  We found a nice campground at Alexandra Bridge and spent a few days on the edge of the river, fishing and relaxing.

Now off to Bunbury!!

Busselton Jetty - LONG!!!!

Coast between Busselton and Augusta

Augusta Lighthouse (tallest one still operating in Aus)

Wooden water wheel turned to stone by calcium in the water

Hunting and gathering

local

Camp ground, Alexander Bridge